This invention relates generally to jerseys, and more particularly to a football jersey which is adapted to stay tucked into the pants of a wearer.
Football jerseys have commonly come untucked from the pants of a wearer while the wearer is running and/or moving his or her arms while blocking, catching or throwing a football. Opposing players have taken advantage of this to grab the tail of the jersey when attempting to tackle the wearer. Often the jersey becomes untucked when the wearer is raising his or her arms, which pulls the jersey upwardly from the pants. Since conventional jerseys are cut with the sleeve at an angle of approximately 30 degrees downwardly from vertical, there is considerable tension in the body of the jersey pulling the jersey upwardly when the wearer raises his or her arms. In addition, tackling is made easier if the jersey is loose fitting or becomes loose fitting while the player is moving, since any loose or hanging material presents an easy target to be grabbed by opposing players. Moreover, sleeves, as well as the body of the jersey, may present such a target if they are loose fitting.
Heretofore, football jerseys have been designed to be relatively loose fitting to allow the arms and body to move freely without undue resistence from the jersey. A tight-fitting jersey will not be acceptable if it reduces the mobility of the wearer such that it becomes easy to tackle the wearer or difficult to pass, catch and block.
One approach to this problem may be to make a jersey from elastic (stretchable) material so the it is more likely to remain tight-fitting when the wearer is moving. Numbering and lettering, however, are likely to become distorted, making it difficult for fans to determine the identity of the wearer, when the wearer moves if they are attached to stretchable material. In addition, stretchable material has a limit to how far it may be stretched without tearing or reducing the mobility of the player. This limit may be exceeded when the player raises his or her arms to catch or pass the football.